Homemade Nutella

As soon as I saw this recipe on smitten kitchen the other day, I knew I had to make it.  I've just been waiting to get to the grocery store to pick up some peanuts.  If you aren't familiar with Nutella, it is a creamy chocolate hazelnut spread.  This, however, is much nuttier than Nutella.  This is more like chocolate peanut butter.

The texture is really similar to all natural peanut butter.  This is super simple.  Its just a matter of toasting peanuts and grinding everything together in a food processor.  My tiny, low powered food processor wasn't able to make the super creamy product I was expecting.  Maybe a larger food processor would do a little bit better with this?  My food processor is also really loud... so perhaps the noise kept me from grinding them as long as I should have?

Either way, it is delicious.  I'm soooooo looking forward to having some for breakfast tomorrow!

Homemade Nutella

adapted from smitten kitchen

makes 1 1/2 cups

2 cups peanuts (I used roasted salted peanuts)

1/2 cup + 1 T cocoa powder

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

pinch salt

4 T vegetable or peanut oil

If you have raw peanuts, roast peanuts at 400-degrees for 10 minutes.  Put peanuts in the bowl of a food processor and grind until they liquefy, about 5 minutes.  Mine never quite liquefied... they just formed a smooth-ish paste... maybe thats why my final product wasn't as smooth.  Add cocoa powder, powdered sugar, salt, and 2 T oil, and mix until well combined, about 1 minute.  Add more salt and oil as needed to reach a smooth, creamy consistency.

Store in the refrigerator in a closed container.  Just like peanut butter, this will get really thick in the fridge, so you might want to let it sit out a few minutes before using.

Note, added later:  This got a lot sweeter as it sat, I supposed the flavors were able to meld together.  If I made this again, I would only use 1c powdered sugar, maybe 1 1/4 c.  Keep that in mind when you are tasting it as you go!